TORONTO — A Canadian teen’s fight to bring his boyfriend to his high school prom is being made into a musical.
Marc Hall, whose story made international headlines in 2002, said Monday he is “excited” about the production, which is currently in development at Sheridan College’s Canadian Music Theatre Project.
Prom Queen: The Musical is being adapted from Prom Queen: The Marc Hall Story, a 2004 TV movie that starred Aaron Ashmore as Hall and Dave Foley as Principal Warrick.
READ MORE: 10 years later, Marc Hall is much more than “the prom guy”
Michael Rubinoff, producer and associate dean at Sheridan, said he was approached by Mary Young Leckie, one of the producers of the TV movie.
“I loved the idea,” he told Global News. “I remember Marc’s story quite well.”
Hall became the face of gay equality in Canada when he took the Durham Catholic District School Board to court in 2002 after the principal of Monsignor John Pereyma Catholic Secondary School in Oshawa, Ont. refused to allow him to bring his then-boyfriend, Jean-Paul Dumond, to prom.
Justice Robert McKinnon issued an injunction ordering the school to allow Hall to take the date of his choice to the prom.
Hall dropped his case against the school board in 2005.
Below: Theatre producer Michael Rubinoff with Marc Hall.
Rubinoff said he recently had lunch with Hall to talk about the musical project.
“It’s about getting to the heart of the story so Marc shared things about that time that aren’t in the public domain,” he said.
Rubinoff said he is inspired to create shows about “really ordinary people who find themselves doing really extraordinary things by accident.” His recent works include Marathon of Hope, a folk musical about Terry Fox, and Come From Away — a musical set in Gander, Newfoundland in the hours and days following the 9/11 attacks.
A workshop version of Prom Queen: The Musical will likely be ready by November 2014 but Rubinoff said it could be two years before it’s ready for a Toronto stage.
“My hope is Marc will be along for the ride,” he said. “For me, it’s all about authenticity — notwithstanding taking artistic license.”
Hall, now 29, earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Waterloo and a Master of Science degree in cognitive neuroscience from University College London.
He currently lives in Alberta, where he works as a research assistant at the University of Calgary.
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